Monthly Archives: December 2006

Rachael asked if I was ever going to blog again. The short answer is yes… Eventually..

Life has either not seemed that interesting or I’ve been too annoyed with things to cohereantly blog. I’ll try and give a brief rundown of what’s ben going on.

The Saga Of My Attempt At A 9-1-1 Career

Ok, I’m sure I’ve talked about my desire to get a job as a telecommunicator with our local 9-1-1 center. Well, they finally posted the job description in early November and were opening the job to the public on the 13th. My friend who does the computer work for the agency thought we should try my screenreader on the CAD software just to see if it worked and how much scripting we might need done. This was a question I wanted answered as well.

We went into Dispatch and asked the director if he cared that we try it. He seemed mildly interested in it, so we went ahead and installed the software on a spare workstation. It actually worked pretty well. There would be the need to create a few prompts for unlabled edit fields and such, but nothing too substantial. At one point, while we were waiting for a set of speakers, I had a brief conversation with the Assistant Director who asked why I was interested in working for 9-1-1 and if I thought I could do calltaking or radio. I assured her I could handle both positions and that I didn’t see a problem doing any of the required tasks.

The Friday after that, I spent the night with 2rd shift and I thought it went well. It was a slow night, but I got to learn some things and who a few more people were.

I turned in my application the first day I could and waited to hear back…

December 6. Rumor told me the list of candidates they wanted called back for interviews had been turned into HR the previous friday. I decided to make a follow-up call to HR and see what the status of the position was. After playing phone tag with their office I was told the interviews had been conducted already.

I was, to say the least, not happy. Everyone I knew that worked there or was involved in the department was confident I would at least get an interview.

I’m still trying to find out why I didn’t. HR wasn’t able to tell me anything more than the basic criteria I used. I’ve got a call into the Director to find out what happened. Based on the position description, I can’t see how I wasn’t even qualified to get an interview.

I have been encouraged to persue this legally and I”m honestly not sure what I’m going to do. I’m pretty pissed and really want an explanation, but this county can be so backwards, unwilling to give people a chance, and political that it isn’t even funny.

More Employment Saga

Ok, maybe I posted about this, but I’m too lazy to go look, I got beat out for the job with the police/fire departments by… the Police Chief’s brother!!! ARGGHHH!!

Anyway, now I’m waiting to hear back from the hospital about an application I turned in for a second shift help desk position. I think if I don’t get this, I’m giving up and becoming a professional mattress tester.

Holidays

We spent the week of Thanksgiving at Treva’s parents’ place in Amish country. We had a good time, but I really wish at least one of the neighbors would get wireless so I could ‘borrow’ it and check my mail. :-).

Christmas will be spent in Wisconsin. We will be getting there on the 23rd and leaving the 29th. Make your appointment with my social secretary now.

Other Stuff

Homegroup has been going really well. (No, I’m not just saying that because you read this Rett.) It’s been good having it here and I love having a small group for study and discussion.

Hmmm, what else… Why does JAWS keep crashing while I write this post? Will I ever get my TV’s sound working so I don’t have to reset the mixer every time? Will I ever make enough money to hire a maid to clean my house?? I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned.

I’m sorry for the pathetic length of time between posts. I will try to do better.

I miss you all.

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Wow, that looks kind of depressing. It’s not as bad as it looks, I’m just feeling kind of blah about the whole job thing right now and I think that clouds my mood about everything else. I keep telling Treva not to define herself by her work and yet… I seem to be defining myself by my lack thereof. Psychoanalyze that. ??